Editorial 14-2

Abstract

Dear Reader, It is with great pleasure that we present the latest issue of the ELT Research Journal (ELT-RJ), a curated collection of insightful and timely contributions that address the evolving landscape of English Language Teaching and its related disciplines. True to our mission, we continue to provide a robust platform for scholarly dialogue, aiming to catalyse further research and innovation among academics, teacher educators, and practitioners within the global ELT community. This issue opens with a study by Tuğba Özbek and Emre Toprak. Using a quantitative survey method, the study focused on scaling factors that influence English learning and teaching in university preparatory classes, and found that students ranked effort as the most important factor for learning, while instructors emphasized student participation as the key factor for teaching. The second article by Emine Palta and Burçak Yılmaz Yakışık focuses on a qualitative design with interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis, and this study focused on how a Turkish university’s English preparatory program meets business students’ academic and professional needs, and found that while it improves general proficiency, it fails to provide field specific skills, highlighting the need for a task-based, technology-integrated curriculum to better prepare learners for professional life. In the third study, Ferzan Atay uses a phenomenological design with interviews of 15 vocational high school EFL teachers, and this study focused on stress experiences and coping strategies, and found that while teachers show resilience through pedagogical and psychological approaches, systemic issues like limited resources, administrative workload, and curriculum mismatches remain the most critical stressors requiring institutional and policy reforms. The fourth study by Reza Sahmaniasl and İsmail Yaman uses a mixed-method thematic analysis of Turkish and Iranian 12th-grade EFL textbooks, and this study focused on cultural representations across local, global, and target-language categories, and found that Turkish materials emphasize global themes with selective Anglophone cues, while Iranian materials prioritize moral, religious, and national identity narratives, underscoring the need for more balanced curricula to foster intercultural communicative competence. In the fifth study, Şeyda Savran Çelik and Dinçay Köksal follow an explanatory sequential mixed-method design with surveys and interviews. This study focused on in-service English teachers’ perceptions of 21st-century skills, and found that ELT Research Journal I while teachers value these competencies, limited in-service training prevents effective classroom application, underscoring the need for targeted professional development. The sixth study by Evrim Eveyik-Aydın and Zeynep Cumhur Çamlıbel Acar applies a questionnaire with 123 pre-service teachers and 15 trainers, and this study focused on tool preferences in emergency distance education during Covid-19, and found Zoom most favored for ease of use and interaction, Perculus valued for recording and storage, and YouTube/instructor-made videos appreciated for autonomy and self-pacing, underscoring the need to align tool selection with pedagogical demands. This issue also features a review article. Şeyma Yeşil offers a comprehensive literature review, focused on the role of AI-assisted tools in fostering learner autonomy in foreign language pedagogy, and found that while AI enhances individualized and self-directed learning, challenges such as over-reliance, ethical risks, and unequal infrastructure highlight the need for scaffolded instruction and further exploratory research in EFL contexts. We extend our sincere gratitude to the authors for their significant contributions and for choosing this journal as a venue for their scholarship. We are also deeply indebted to our editors, co-editors, and reviewers, whose dedication and expertise ensure the continued quality and academic rigor of our publication. We trust that the findings presented here will inspire fresh inquiry, and we warmly invite you to consider submitting your own original research to future volumes of ELT-RJ. Best regards, ELT Research Journal Prof. Dr. Dinçay KÖKSAL Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Gonca YANGIN EKŞİ Associate Editor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Erdost YASTIBAŞ Associate Editor

Keywords

• ELT
• Research
• Journal